The Discovery of a Large Vineyard at Pompeii: University of Maryland Excavations, 1970

Abstract

The 1970 season of the University of Maryland at Pompeii marked the third and final summer devoted to the excavation of the large insula (Region II, Insula v) N of the amphitheater. Limited subsoil excavations during 1966 indicated that the area was a vineyard, and not the Foro Boario, or Cattle Market, as had been believed for many years.2 Excavations during the summer of 1968 (ill. i) further clarified the planting pattern, uncovered two triclinia in the vineyard, and revealed the presence of numerous trees.' The lapilli which had gradually filled the cavities when the ancient roots decayed were carefully removed, the cavities measured, and plaster casts made. But the areas excavated in 1966 and 1968 had been too badly damaged by the passage of trucks and by modern vegetation to permit a definitive study of the nature of the cavities found, and many questions regarding viticulture as revealed in this important vineyard could not be answered. Most of the insula had been cleared dur-